The place was known by the First Nations Peoples as Waibejewung -- ''where the waters flow back and forth' -- descriptive of winds causing a slight current through the narrow channel between the island and the mainland.

French fur traders knew the place as Le Petit Courant which translates as 'the little current.' The settlement was originally a Hudson's Bay Company fur-trading post built in 1856.

A post office, called Little Current, was established in 1865, but in the 1870s settlers also called it Shaftesbury. Archaeological digs on Manitoulin I. have produced traces of hum an habitation over 30,000 years old, the oldest known in North America.

Who those people were, where they came from, and where they disappeared to, remains a mystery.

The first recorded European resident of Manitoulin l. was Father Joseph Poncet, who established a mission in 1648 about 16 km. S of Little Current to serve the island's Algonkian-speaking people.

The mission was abandoned in 1650 following the destruction of the Huron nation by the Iroquois.

Postcards above used with permission from A Great Lakes Treasury of Old Postcards 2007 Lorenzo Marcolin, MD 176 pp. For Copies call the Huronia Museum 705 526 2844 or email lmarcolin@aol.com

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This record last updated: February 8, 2010